President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has said that his country has started receiving Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
According to the Belarusian dictator, Belarus will receive a bomb from Russia that is allegedly three times more powerful than those used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was published on the Belarusian Belta news agency’s Telegram channel.
Putin’s ally said this during a meeting with Russian journalists at a military-industrial complex facility in the Minsk region. Lukashenko said the day before that he would allegedly personally control nuclear weapons.
What weapons has Belarus allegedly received?
Alexandr Lukashenko said that Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would be dispatched at several sites. He added that Belarus would need to get approval from the Kremlin to use them.
We have missiles and bombs that we received from Russia. These bombs are three times more potent than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” the Belarusian dictator said.
Lukashenko recently visited Vladimir Putin in Russia. During an “informal meeting” in Sochi, the dictators discussed the deployment of nuclear weapons.
Putin said that on 7-8 July, “the relevant procedures” for deploying nuclear weapons would be completed in Belarus. Thus, measures to base nuclear weapons in Belarus will begin. The Russian dictator stated that “everything is going according to plan” in this regard.
Facts about Russian nuclear weapons deployment in Belarus
In March 2023, Putin announced that he would deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus because the United Kingdom would provide Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions.
Belarus, which supports Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, reacted cynically to this decision. Lukashenko called it a “forced step”. The country was allegedly pushed to do so by Ukraine’s Western partners.
At the end of May, Putin signed a decree on the final decision to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus. At the same time, Lukashenko said it was “possible” to store nuclear weapons in the country.
